What does the no parking sign mean?

This sign is fixed to a post on the street where you want to drop a passenger. What does it allow?

Stopping briefly to let a passenger out, then moving on

This sign bans parking, not the brief halt needed to let people or goods on and off. The line between the two is whether the vehicle is working or waiting, and the moment it is waiting it is parked.

This sign is on the pole beside you and a passenger wants to be dropped off here. What are you allowed to do?

Stop briefly to let the passenger out, then move on

No parking still allows a short stop to pick up or drop off people or goods, as long as you stay with the vehicle and move off promptly. What it forbids is leaving the vehicle standing, and switching on the hazard lights makes no legal difference to that.

This sign is on the post beside the curb where you want to drop a passenger and then go into the shop yourself. What does it allow?

The drop off, but not leaving the vehicle there while you go in

No parking forbids leaving the vehicle standing for longer than it takes to let people or goods on and off. A brief halt to drop your passenger fits inside that, walking away from the vehicle does not. The line is whether the vehicle is still in use or simply being left somewhere.

This sign, which in Quebec may be lettered STATIONNEMENT INTERDIT, is on a post outside a shop. You want to set a passenger and their bags down at the door. Are you allowed to?

Yes, you may stop briefly to set someone down or take something on, but you may not leave the car standing there

A parking ban stops you leaving a vehicle standing, and it does not stop the short pause it takes to load or unload. The moment the car sits there waiting, it is parked, whatever the engine is doing. Hazard lights change nothing about what a sign permits.

You pull over where this sign is posted and sit in the driver seat while a passenger goes into a shop for a few minutes. Is that allowed?

No, because waiting for someone is parking as far as this sign is concerned

Staying behind the wheel does not turn parking into stopping. What counts is that the vehicle is standing still while nobody is getting in or out, and hazard lights are a warning device rather than permission to ignore a sign.

You pull over under this sign, switch off the engine and sit in the driver seat waiting for a friend who is running late. Is that allowed?

No, sitting and waiting is exactly what the sign forbids

Parking covers leaving a vehicle standing whether or not somebody is inside it, and the only carve out is the act of loading or unloading itself. Waiting for a person who has not arrived is not loading, which is why drivers who believe that staying behind the wheel protects them still get ticketed.